The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2020

By AKO Caine Prize, Erica Sugo Anyadike, Chikodili Emelumadu and 3 more

Now in its 21st year, the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing is African’s leading literary prize, and is awarded to a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere.



The collection brings together the five stories on the 2020 shortlist. The authors shortlisted for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize are:

- Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) for Fisherman’s Stew

- Rémy Ngamije (Rwanda/Namibia) for The Neighbourhood Watch

- Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria) for Grace Jones

- Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania) for How to Marry an African President

- Chikodili Emeladu (Nigeria) for What to do when your child brings

home a Mami Wata



The 2020 judging panel comprises:

- Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp (Chair) has over 35 years’ experience in the UK arts and cultural sector, including a 25-year career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and director. Since May 2018 he has been Director of The Africa Centre.



- Audrey Brown is a South African broadcast journalist, who currently presents the BBC World Service flagship daily news and current affairs programme, Focus on Africa. Gabriel Gbadamosi is an Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright. His London novel Vauxhall (2013) won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and Best International Novel at the Sharjah Book Fair.



- James Murua is a Kenya-based blogger, journalist, podcaster and editor who has written for a variety of media outlets in a career spanning print, web and TV.



- Ebissé Wakjira-Rouw is an Ethiopian-born non-fiction editor, podcaster, publisher and policy advisor at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Internationalist
• Release date: Sep 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781780265803

AKO Caine Prize

The AKO Caine Prize was launched in 2000 to highlight the richness and diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience internationally. The focus on the short story reflects the contemporary development of the African story-telling tradition. Notable winners include as Leila Aboulela, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Brian Chikwava and NoViolet Bulawayo.

Book preview

The Caine Prize 2020

Shortlisted Stories

How to Marry an African President

Erica Sugo Anyadike

W hen you are interviewed for BBC documentaries in your palace, they will want to know how you met. Cast your eyes downward and tell them how you were a shy and hardworking secretary in the State House typing pool. Omit to mention that you were married. Lie that you were divorced and not looking. Not even for a President.

The truth is, when you meet, he will be neatly dressed. Shirt collar starched just so, shoes like shiny copper coins, fingernails trimmed and clean, hair clipped and precise as his speech. He will start by hanging around you a little too long. Your conversations will peter out and he will end them reluctantly. The other secretaries will stare. You’ll pretend not to notice. Play it cool and coy. He will ask you out. Appear taken aback, smooth your skirt and shift your weight onto your other foot. He will look paternal and concerned. Explain that you are married, and he is too.

He will laugh and say he’s only looking for a friend.

He will be lying.

Pay attention to his shoes. They will tell you everything.

Notice that when he comes by, he wears burgundy lace-ups. It will confuse you at first. A man like him is old-fashioned and into orthodox blacks and browns. Burgundy is his way of saying: an older man like me can still bring excitement to a young girl like you. Be sure to comment on his shoes. Remember – we all crave approval.

Listen to him talk about his wife. Part of you will like that he is respectful; regretful, even, that she will die from her illness and that there is nothing he can do about it. It is only a matter of time. Sympathize. But don’t miss the opportunity. Mention how you wish you had a devoted loving husband such as him. He will probe, try to get you to say more. Grow sad and quiet. Later – drop hints about how you and your husband don’t make love any more. Say: even women have needs. Giggle nervously, cover your mouth with your hand and apologize for being inappropriate. See his eyes brighten.

When he takes you out in the Mercedes, sink into butter-soft seats upholstered in cream. He will offer you a drink that appears almost magically from a console overlaid with the grain of an exotic wood, a burnished red-brown with dark streaks so opulent it’s almost oppressive. Decline because good girls don’t drink. Only later do they pretend to have acquired a reluctant palate for wine, courtesy of their husband’s influence. He will signify his approval by putting his arm around your shoulders. See the watch on his wrist out of the corner of your eye: gold bezel, crocodile leather strap. Struggle to breathe. Do not panic. Money sometimes makes the air feel heavier for those who do not have it.

Stop attending night school and give up the English literature degree you were working towards. Being a consort requires being available at all hours. Like all powerful men, presidents have options, you must maximize your time.

Hear rumours swirling of how he was tortured in the Liberation struggle and how this may affect the consummation. These rumours are never said directly. Instead, those who have already identified you as a future benefactor will talk in circles. Cryptic conversations that are long and winding, yet deliberate like footpaths. Eventually, your aunt will tell you about modern medicine you can crush and slip into a man’s tea; herbs for ‘strength’ that you can mix into a man’s stew.

The first time you and the President make love, he will take you to an old colonial hotel with paint peeling like tears, as if mourning for its former glory. The doorman with the top hat will salute him, waiters will scurry and rush to bring him what he desires. When he orders high tea, think: he is more English than the English owner himself. Fail to understand the appeal of cucumber sandwiches. Murmur appreciatively as if you do. He will compliment the clotted cream that goes with the scones. The English hotelier, ruddy from the heat and frequent gin and tonics, will beam proudly. It is from one of his dairy farms, he’ll say. His skin will be pink and thin, translucent like a lizard. His lips will be chapped, spittle congregating in the corners. He will undress you with his eyes. Later you’ll hear a snatch of conversation and the hotelier will glance at you approvingly before leaning forward to whisper something in the President’s ear. You won’t hear much, just something like: ‘You don’t have to lie back and think of England with this one.’ The two men will laugh and the President will pat him on the back. This will only cement your dislike for the hotelier. He will go on a mental list you’ll make. A list of what you hope to get, a list of people you will get back at.

It is only a matter of time.

When he finally takes you to bed, be prepared. The hotel room will have a four-poster bed and smell musty. Older women have gone before you, have navigated men like intrepid explorers braving unfamiliar terrain, have mapped out the ego of a man. They will warn you to strike a fine balance between Mary and Magdalene. They will guide you on how to signal desire while maintaining a certain reluctance that men of a certain age associate with modesty. To be too keen is unseemly. To appear uninterested can offend. Groom yourself, wear a delicate perfume and remember how much it seems to arouse him when you behave as if you are overwhelmed. Remember, he is a teacher. He’ll want to teach you things. Act as eager to learn as you are to